Fertility and Infertility Support Hub (FISH)
Since 2001, as collaborated with the The Centre of Assisted Reproduction and Embryology, The University of Hong Kong-Queen Mary Hospital (HKU-QMH CARE), we jointly established the first fertility counselling and psychosocial assessment service in Hong Kong to assist couples who are either facing pregnancy difficulty, undergoing ARTs or coping with miscarriage grief through counseling service, psychosocial support and educational workshops.
Unlikely other countries where counseling for people undergoing ARTs are mandatory by legislation, infertility counseling services in Hong Kong are mostly provided on needs basis. To date, our service is currently reaching out to individuals and couples and empower them to build up a positive attitude and acquire knowledge and skills to manage challenges and issues arise from fertility issues.
TYPES OF SERVICES
(A) Fertility health and educational talk
- Enhance holistic wellness through learning Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit technique
- Improve couple communication skills during IVF treatment
- Address myths and questions about IVF treatment through dialogue with doctors
(B) Group psychotherapy
- IVF treatment can be a stressful process. Through group therapy, those with emotional distress arising from the treatment can process their emotions with the support from registered social worker and gain mutual understanding from the peer sharing.
(C) Psychosocial counselling*
- Stress and anxiety associated with infertility
- Emotional needs arising from treatment
- Distress due to failed treatment
- Grief as a result of pregnancy loss
- Marital and family relationship issues
(D) Psychosocial evaluation for third-party reproduction*
Third-party reproduction in terms of the use of donor eggs and sperm is an alternative ways of family formation. Psychosocial evaluation for potential recipient couples and donors will be provided by our registered social worker. An evaluation report will be provided afterwards.
*Psychosocial counselling and psychosocial evaluation for third-party reproduction are fee-charging services. All information during the interviews will be kept strictly confidential.
SERVICE RECIPIENTS
1. Individuals or couples who are
- Facing fertility‐related issues
- Undergoing infertility treatment
- Planning, seeking or making decision on RT procedure
- Terminating RT procedure
- Experiencing failure in RT procedure
- Experiencing perinatal loss such as miscarriage, recurrent miscarriage and stillbirth
- Facing stress or psychological distress
- Having sexual issues
- Seeking other family formation alternatives such as adoption
2. Potential donors of gametes and embryos and their spouses
DETAILS
Services will be provided by Registered Social Workers.
Please consult your healthcare professionals for further information or referral, or contact us at 3917 4082 at 9:30pm to 3:30pm on Tue, Thu and Fri.
Please look out for updates from The Centre of Assisted Reproduction and Embryology, The University of Hong Kong-Queen Mary Hospital (HKU-QMH CARE):